Popular teaching tool could be curtailed, cut

School budget woes endanger cultural experiences program

Camara Sankofa held a tarantula as fifth-graders Ernesto Aguayo (left) and Robert McGowans (center) and Jason De Leon watched. It's a way to get students to "step out of their comfort zone," she said. (Nancee E. Lewis / Union-Tribune)

Camara Sankofa held a tarantula as fifth-graders Ernesto Aguayo (left) and Robert McGowans (center) and Jason De Leon watched. It's a way to get students to "step out of their comfort zone," she said. (Nancee E. Lewis / Union-Tribune)

OVERVIEW

Background: The San Diego Unified School District created the Off-Campus Integrated Learning Experiences program more than 30 years ago. It involves weeklong excursions to Old Town, Balboa Park and Camp Palomar, where children from different backgrounds talk about their experiences.

What's changing: The district, trying to balance a $146.7-million budget, is looking to curtail or eliminate the program if it can't get $34 million in savings from its employee unions.

The future: The school board is expected to vote on a final budget in June.

San Diego 
When David Alvarez and his classmates from Cherokee Point Elementary School spent a recent week in Balboa Park, they hit all of the hot spots: museums, zoo and a play.

But the fifth-graders also took on weighty issues during daily lessons that covered things such as racism, discrimination and prejudice conflict resolution.

“I didn't expect all of this 'Oprah stuff',” said David, 11. “It's good to talk about it. Stuff happens at school all the time.”

Big yellow buses roll into Balboa Park and Old Town and up to Camp Palomar throughout the year to let loose hundreds of excited children celebrating the start of a week away from all the trappings of school. But as David learned, these excursions are not traditional field trips.

Born out of a discrimination lawsuit filed against the San Diego Unified School District more than 30 years ago, the Off-Campus Integrated Learning Experiences program – known by the acronym OCILE to parents, teachers and students – stands to be severely cut back or eliminated to help offset a $146.7 million deficit to the district's $2.1 billion operating budget. The program's cuts are listed on a backup menu of cost-cutting measures, but have been more closely scrutinized as of late.

“This is not like cutting out a field trip, it's so much more than that,” said Tina Chin, who oversees the Balboa Park program. “We don't push any agenda. These are real issues that kids confront every day.”

Students are paired with others from schools in demographically different neighborhoods than their own. They write and talk about touchy issues that may not make it into their regular classes.

When Camera Sankofa asks fifth-graders visiting her classroom in Balboa Park if they have ever been put down because of their race, hands shoot in the air and a frank conversation ensues.

“Some kid said to me, At least I'm not black,' ” one boy said. “I didn't know what to say back.”

To get students to “step out of their comfort zone,” Sankofa brings in tarantulas and snakes for them to hold. Even the most squeamish students agree to participate. Macho boys find themselves taking ballet lessons in the park's dance studios, an exercise that she says forces them to rethink their preconceptions.

The annual program's costs are: $1.6 million for Old Town, nearly $1.6 million for Balboa Park and $3.4 million for Camp Palomar.

The Old Town school is on a portion of the district's old Fremont campus, which was renovated in 2006 with $1.2 million from the Proposition MM bond measure. The Balboa Park program operates out of a collection of portable classrooms near Roosevelt Middle School. The Palomar school is leased to district by the San Diego County Office of Education.

Every student in the district is eligible to participate in the free excursions that start in the fourth grade with a week in Old Town, which is directly tied to the state-required California history curriculum. It's a fitting venue for the lessons, given that it is called “the birthplace of California.”

Fifth-grade Balboa Park visits include walking trips to museums and gardens, watching live performances and touring the San Diego Zoo.

Sixth-graders go to Camp Palomar for a four-day, three-night camping trip, which for many is their first time spending the night away from home.

When San Diegans look back on their childhoods, these are among the experiences that reveal them as alums of the city's public school system. It's also one of the few school memories that parents and their children share in an ever-changing public education system.

“It's really a shame that it's even come to this,” said Lani Grim of Talmadge, who has been looking forward to sending her son to Old Town next year when he starts the fourth grade. “When else will all these kids from diverse backgrounds get together for these kinds of conversations and experiences?”

The program frequently appears on annual lists of budget cuts, but the threat has never been more serious than it is this year.

“Everything, Balboa Park, Old Town, the Visual and Performing Arts Department could be gone,” said trustee Katherine Nakamura, who questioned many of the board's budget decisions at Tuesday's school board meeting. “I'm very concerned.”

Last month, the school board adopted a two-tiered preliminary budget plan that includes cost-cutting measures to offset a $146.7 deficit.

Because $34 million in cost-cutting measures – including furloughs and insurance cost increases – are subject to negotiations with employee unions, the $34 million backup plan was also approved, in case the pending labor talks are unsuccessful.

Some parents have suggested charging a fee for parents who can afford to pay. Others have questioned the district's priorities, saying the Plan A cuts of forcing small schools to share principals and cutting magnet school busing are far more crucial than the off-campus program's trips.

Michele Linback, whose daughter, Remy, attends seventh grade at Grant School in Mission Hills, values the trips. But she wonders if the district could save money by partnering with foundations or other organizations to send students to Old Town and Balboa Park.

If she had to preserve one of the trips, it would be the sixth-grade trek to Camp Palomar.

“The other places are so local and accessible,” Linback said. “Palomar is something many kids may never do.”